Thinking Ahead: 3 Reasons to Preplan Your Funeral or Memorial

19With America’s increasingly older population, many people are seriously considering planning their own funeral or memorial rather than leaving it to loved ones. Pre-planned memorials can be an excellent way to manage both the cost and the arrangements for your final goodbye.

If you are on the fence about whether or not to plan your own funeral, here are three of the best reasons to do so.

1. Controlling the Arrangements

Your funeral or memorial should reflect your life and personality as well as how you want to be remembered. If you have no arrangements in place before your passing, you may end up with whatever those around you decide to do. The best way to ensure that your wishes will be followed is to have them down in writing or, even better, in a contract.

For some people, their family members or close friends will know how they would have wanted a funeral to be executed. But if your wishes are different from those closest to you, you may need to take additional steps to make sure you get the memorial you want.

For example, people who hold different religious beliefs than family members or who are not particularly close with their immediate relatives often choose to preplan a funeral.

Controlling your own memorial also gives you the opportunity to plan something surprising and special for your loved ones. Whether you pick out a special charity for donations or arrange for everyone to come together to visit your favorite picnic spot, you can ensure your wishes are carried out by determining things ahead of time.

2. Saving Money

There are several solid financial reasons to either pre-plan or prepay funeral arrangements. For one thing, funeral costs will continue to rise. If you don’t expect to pass away soon, you’ll have to pay higher costs down the road when inflation has taken its toll. Most pre-planning packages allow you to pay today’s rates.

Secondly, family members and loved ones who are in a state of grief can suffer from emotional pressure or bad decision-making when they have to plan your funeral shortly after your death. They may spend money they can’t afford in order to ensure that you get the send-off they really feel you deserve. They may also feel pressure to spend large amounts on caskets or urns, flower arrangements and special services.

By having your funeral planned ahead of time, you prevent this type of emotional or pressured spending. You have time to shop around and compare prices or packages, which is something that most grieving families will not take the time to do. That alone can save hundreds of dollars and prevent unnecessary addons that you don’t want.

3. Reducing Stress

Losing someone important to them will surely leave your loved ones dealing with their own grief. Having to handle the arrangements for a funeral is likely to add stress and emotional difficulty to their situation. You can give them all a real gift by handling these affairs yourself long before they are in that challenging position.

Each decision you make in advance is one less decision others have to make while grieving. During your preplanning efforts, make sure to pick out hymns or songs, photographs, eulogy speakers, and favorite scriptures so that others don’t end up struggling with such personal decisions. Instead, they’ll be able to spend the time before your memorial remembering you and the significance of each element you selected.

It’s clear that there are many benefits for anyone planning their own funeral in advance. Whether you’re drawn to the cost savings or the ability to reduce stress on your family, the funeral experts at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service in Dayton can help you make the perfect arrangements for yourself.